The Bullet Journal Method

by Ryder Carroll

Studies suggest that your concentration suffers simply by having your smartphone in the room with you, even if it’s silent or powered off!

Sometimes the hardest part of getting started is knowing where to begin. Maybe you just don’t know how to start tackling your goals, your projects, your tasks, or even getting organized. Maybe you’re afraid that you’ll get it wrong or that you’ll disappoint yourself. If that’s the case, an easy place to begin is to get into the habit of simply capturing your thoughts on paper.

“How I’m Overcoming My Obsession with Constant Self-Improvement,” Leo Babauta, the creator of the blog Zen Habits, writes about how he ran an ultramarathon, participated in the Goruck Challenge (a ten-hour obstacle course where you must wear a brick-filled backpack), and learned how to code, only to find that his life wasn’t any better. “The fantasy was never real,” he writes.24 He is not alone in this realization.

None of us can know with any true certainty what will make us happy. In fact, it turns out that we’re pretty lousy at guessing how something will make us feel, thanks to a phenomenon known as impact bias: “the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of future feeling states.”28 In essence, we chronically underestimate our ability to adapt.

At the end of this life, what will you have accomplished, personally and professionally? What are the consequences of this life?

Now (bear with me), for each path, take 15 minutes or more to write your obituary based on having taken that path. Create a “Two Lives” Collection and add it to your Index. Start with one spread for one path. Set up the second spread only when you’ve completed the first. Fill as many pages as you need. Dig deep. Be honest. This is for your eyes only. What do you see as you look far down each path?

First, turn to your next blank spread. The Topic for this new Collection will be “5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”

Now that you’ve picked your goal and created a Collection for it in your Bullet Journal, use the first spread to brainstorm the what and the why. Dig in and explore.

What do I want to do? Why do I want to do it? What small thing can I do right now to get started?

Plan: Recognize an opportunity and plan a change. Do: Put the plan into play and test the change. Check: Analyze the results of your test and identify what you’ve learned. Act: Act on what you’ve learned. If the change didn’t work, go through the cycle again with a different plan. If you were successful, incorporate what you learned to plan new improvements. Rinse and repeat.

Again, we’re looking for any win, no matter how small. Set the bar so low that you’ll actually do it, and log it as a Task in your Bullet Journal. Ask yourself the same question the next day. Find something, anything, that will make your life a little better. Perhaps catch up with another friend whose name came up during yesterday’s call, try getting coffee from that funky little place you discovered on the scenic route, or sort one dresser drawer. Continue doing this every day for a month, and keep track of it in your Bullet Journal.

Let’s say you have to file your taxes in a month. Rather than waiting until the last minute and realizing that there’s all sorts of stuff that you didn’t take into account and then stressing out about it, break it down into time-boxing sessions. For example: Sessions 1–2: Sun., 8:30–9:00 p.m.—Gather materials. Sessions 3–6: Mon., Wed., Sun., 8:30–9:00 p.m.—Compile materials into spreadsheet. Session 7: Tues., 8:30–9:00 p.m.—Wrap up and submit files. Session 8: Thurs. (last day), 8:30–9:00 p.m.—Provide any additional info.

Sam Cawthorn, founder of Speakers Tribe, once said, “The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, but they make the most of everything.”

I want to _____ [what] so that I can _____ [why] by _____ [how]. So in this case, the mission statement could be: I want to go on vacation so that I can relax by not being in the office.

Now, while there’s nothing wrong with this mission statement, digging a little deeper could help you uncover how this trip could connect with something meaningful to you. After all, you don’t need to travel to be out of the office. What is it about this trip that really excites you? We can use the Five Whys (this page) to help us here. Why do you want to go on vacation? To relax. Why? Because work is stressing me out and depressing me. Why? Because it’s the same thing day in and day out, and it makes me feel lonely. Why? Because my life is confined to my cubicle and my couch, and I don’t get to see the people I care about. Why? Because I don’t take time for those things.

We’ve now identified various pain points that we can begin to tackle. Let’s start by highlighting some key themes that have surfaced: confinement, boredom, depression, loneliness, and guilt. These are the likely sources of your motivation. The goal for this vacation would then be to alleviate those pain points by experiencing their opposites: freedom, excitement, joy, connection, and pride. Let’s rephrase our mission statement to address these desires: I want to go on vacation so that I can remind myself what I’m working for (pride) by spending quality time with people I care about (connection) while we have fun (joy) exploring a tropical place together (freedom and excitement).

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. —ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Dieter Rams, the industrial designer behind some of the most iconic radios, shavers, and numerous other household objects (some of which are rumored to have inspired the design of the original iPod), used to say wenniger aber besser, which loosely translates into “less, but better.”